Dragons and Destiny

* * * * *

Dragons and
Destiny

(2nd
Edition)

Copyright ©
2013 Candy Rae

All characters
in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real
persons, living or dead; is purely coincidental.

All rights
reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission in writing of the author.

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* * * * *

Dragons and
Destiny
is dedicated to my children, Robert and Hilary who have
mixed patience with understanding as their mother immerses herself
in her writing and who, on occasion, tells them she loves them very
much but to ‘please go away’.

* * * * *

The T’Quel
Magic - A Trilogy

Ephemeral
Boundary - Enduring Barrier - Eternal Bulwark

The Planet Wolf
Series

Wolves and War
- Conflict and Courage - Homage and Honour - Dragons and Destiny -
Valour and Victory - Paws and Planets - Tales and Tales - Ambition
and Alavidha

Dragon Wolf

(Forthcoming -
Publish Date 2014)

(1) Journey and
Jeopardy - (2) Gossamer and Grass - (3) Flames and Freedom

* * * * *

Cover Artwork -
Copyright © 2010 Jennifer Johnson

* * * * *

Chapter 1 - AL 347 to AL
605

Chapter 2 - AL 607 - First Month
of Summer (Dunrhed)

Chapter 3 - AL 607 - Second
Month of Summer (Vadrhed)

Chapter 4 - AL 607 - Third Month
of Summer (Lokrhed)

Chapter 5 - AL 607 - Fourth
Month of Summer (Sanrhed)

Chapter 6 - AL 607 - Fifth Month
of Summer (Rakrhed)

Chapter 7 - AL 607 - First Month
of Winter (Dunthed)

Chapter 8 - AL 607 - Second
Month of Winter (Vadthed)

Chapter 9 - AL 607 - Third Month
of Winter (Lokthed)

Chapter 10 - AL 607 - Fourth
Month of Winter (Santhed)

Chapter 11 - AL 607 - Fifth
Month of Winter (Rakthed)

Chapter 12 - AL 608 - First
Month of Summer (Dunrhed)

Characters

Glossary and
Appendices

* * * * *

AUTHOR’S
NOTE

The Ancient
Greeks of Planet Earth believed that there were three types of fate
that governed the world. The first, Clotho, was the fate that span
the thread of life. The second, Atropos, was the fate that cut the
thread of life. The third, Lachesis, was the fate that assigned a
person’s destiny.

Planet Wolf is
a world where the grass is not green, where alien trees and spiky
foliage move strangely in the breeze. It’s a world of gigantic
mountains and deep valleys, of huge rivers and primaeval forests,
of vast plains and arid deserts, of restless seas and great
continents. On Planet Wolf, the native creatures act and sound like
nothing mankind has seen before.

It is
six-hundred and seven years since mankind arrived. Not much has
changed since the second century. The country of Murdoch is a
totalitarian and feudalistic Kingdom. Democratic Argyll has become
very prosperous. Vadath is still the home of the Vada who patrol
and protect the northern continent. The Lind continue to live their
lives much as they always have done except for those who choose to
live with humans. In the Great Eastern Sea many of the islands are
now populated. There also the privateers and slavers still roam,
searching for booty and slaves. The Larg remain in the far south.
They have never ceased in their hatred of their eons old enemy, the
Lind.

* * * * *

AL347 TO
AL605

Three of
Five

It was number
Three of Five. This second number was very important to its makers.
It ghosted through space, pulling energy from the heat and light of
the many suns it passed as it carried out its task.

It was not an
animate object. Twenty first century man would have called it an
‘unmanned space probe’. That was its task, to probe, to investigate
and to send back the results of its findings to its makers.

This solar
system was not the first Number Three of Five had visited but it
would be the last. Number Three was nearing the end of its useful
life, its storage compartment held only one last beacon. The
computer that ran Number Three bleeped as it took stock of what its
long-range sensors were reporting. Another bleep and Number Three
manoeuvred into a high planetary orbit around one of the
planets.

The doors of
the storage compartment opened and the computer sent out the pulse
that would release the last beacon from its restrainer-clamps. The
beacon dropped away from Three of Five. The doors closed and the
computer whirred as it ran the ultimate program that signified that
its task was complete. Number Three of Five blew up.

The
gravitational pull of the planet drew the beacon down towards the
surface and it gained speed as it plummeted; coming to a halt
spiked deep inside what was dense forest. There it sat, the only
evidence of its presence an occasional muted flash of blue
light.

With each sun
its power pack feasted with greed on the sun’s rays, replenishing
itself and at pre-programmed times Number Three of Five sent a
burst of information out into space. When the sun was not shining
it lay dormant, waiting.

As the
centuries passed the forest undergrowth grew thicker and deeper,
hiding the beacon from the sun and these waiting periods grew
longer.

Then came one
hot summer and a great forest fire burned. The beacon awoke as the
sun’s rays once again replenished its power pack. It sent out
another burst of information. Then the undergrowth grew to cover it
once more.

That was the
day when the fate of many was decided, the day when, only one klick
from its hiding place those fighting the fire decided that they
could do no more and to permit nature to take its course. That was
the day that signalled the end of the beginning

Events were set
in motion that would change life on Planet Wolf for ever.

* * * * *

AL570 -
Julia

Juliana
Wallace, of the village of Saint Joan in the country of Argyll knew
something momentous was happening the instant her father entered
their cottage. There was an air of suppressed excitement about. Try
as he might, her father couldn’t conceal it. After the family’s
evening meal, as Julia busied herself readying her little brothers
and sisters for bed he and her mother went to their bedroom and
shut the door. Julia heard the murmur of their voices as she bathed
the youngest prior to popping him into his rough nightshirt. She
couldn’t make out what they were saying but they both sounded
excited about something. She could hear her father trying to shush
her mother’s exuberance.

Wonder what
has happened? Something good by the sound of it.
Julia carried
young Joseph up the loft ladder to the area where the younger
children slept. It was a large area, separated by a decorated
screen between brothers and sisters. Holy Writ decreed that
youngsters of the same sex should not sleep together. It was one of
the many rules by which the Wallace family lived. It had only been
since Julia’s fourteenth birthday that she had been permitted into
the boy’s side of the loft, fourteen being the age when a girl was
considered adult and old enough to attend to the more intimate
aspects of rearing children.

With her
birthday the previous month had come other changes. No more could
Julia wear the shorter skirt of a girl-child. Showing off her
ankles was now considered a sin. Her hair was covered with an
embroidered scarf. She still fidgeted with the unaccustomed
tightness. The scarf made her head itch but her mother told her she
would get used to it.

She heard the
older boys climbing the ladder, finished the story and made her way
down to empty the bathtub, her task as soon as she had been strong
enough to carry the heavy pails of water outside to the disposal
ditch.

Her father was
waiting at the bottom of the ladder.

“Juliana,” he
began, “leave the water until later. Come and sit down. I have
something important to tell you.”

Julia winced at
the appellation. With the onset of her adult status, her parents
had stopped calling her by the shortened version of her name. As a
small child she had had difficulties saying Juliana and had called
herself Julia, a name which had stuck although her parents, her
father especially, had never liked it. He gestured to the chair
beside her mother at the kitchen table. Julia sat in the indicated
seat and waited for her father to speak. He cleared his throat, a
habit of his when he was about to pronounce on something of
importance. An apprehensive knot started to form in Julia’s
stomach.

“Um, I spoke to
Thomal Allanson this morning,” he began.

The knot in
Julia’s stomach grew tighter.

Oh no, please
God no.

Everybody in
the village knew that Thomal Allanson was looking for a new wife,
his first having died in childbed some months before.
Please let
it not be him.

“He has seen
you and informed me that he is greatly taken with you and has made
an offer of honourable marriage.”

Anselm Wallace
looked at his daughter for a reaction and got none. He saw was a
white and expressionless face. She had known that now she was
fourteen, her father would be looking for her husband but she had
not expected this, a marriage to a grey-haired, old man. There were
plenty of young unattached lads in the vicinity. Why, David from
the adjoining farm, she liked him, her father had known this and
had encouraged their friendship. Why had he changed his mind?

“Thomal
Allanson?” faltered Julia.

“It is a good
match and he expects no dochter by way of coin or land.”

That was the
rub a rueful Julia realised. Marriage to David would have
necessitated the parting of the dowry and David’s father had long
been after the low field beside the river at the edge of the
Wallace farm. Here was a man prepared to take on Anselm’s eldest
daughter with no dower. With another three daughters for which to
make provision, it was no wonder that Anselm Wallace had leapt at
the chance to see Julia wed so easily.

“Yes, a fine
upstanding man. I admit that he is perhaps older than you would
have expected but I
know
(it was amazing how much emphasis
Anselm could put on that one warning word) that you will accept
this match with pleasure and thankfulness. What have you to
say?”

Julia said
exactly nothing. She sat as if glued to her chair. Her father began
to frown, the first well-known sign that his temper was rising.
Julia’s mother came to her daughter’s rescue.

“I think
Husband, that Julia is too amazed at her good fortune to say
anything.”

“Is this
correct Juliana?”

“Yes Father,”
she managed to say with a grateful glance at her mother.

“Good. Now,
Thomal Allanson does not wish to wait overlong. The wedding will
take place at the new moon.”

This was the
usual time to marry, the new moon symbolising the future of the
marriage. As the moon grew in size in the sky so did the ties
between man and wife, or so the priests said.

“At least you
will be going to an established farmstead,” continued her father,
“no need to start new on virgin ground. Your future husband has a
fine house and a prosperous farm. You should be grateful.”